Woman convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment with suspension for killing protected lynx in Alsace
The 62-year-old woman had beaten a young, hungry female lynx to death with sticks after it attacked her hens in a residential area of Niederbronn-les-Bains. However, the lynx is a protected species.
Convicted for killing protected lynx in her Alsatian garden
A 62-year-old woman was sentenced on Wednesday, 20 May by the Strasbourg criminal court to three months' imprisonment with suspension, according to France Info. The defendant had beaten a young female lynx to death with sticks in her garden in Niederbronn-les-Bains (Bas-Rhin) in October 2024 in order to protect her hens. The lynx is a strictly protected species in France.
The court also imposed a fine of 30,000 euros in compensation for "ecological damage", to be paid to an association working to protect the lynx in the eastern part of the country.
A female in distress enters a hen enclosure
The facts date back to 18 October 2024. On that day, the young feline — a small, hungry female in distress — had entered the enclosure where five hens lived, in a garden located in a residential area of Niederbronn-les-Bains. The owner had first tried to drive the animal away. Faced with the failure of this attempt, she had struck the feline repeatedly on the head with a stick, until its death.
The woman subsequently contacted the municipal police, which in turn alerted the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB).
The One Voice association denounces a "weak" conviction
The One Voice association, a party to these proceedings, responded on Wednesday via a statement. "This decision constitutes recognition of the harm caused to a strictly protected species, even if the conviction remains weak in light of its severity," it stated.
The organisation had campaigned for the penalty to better reflect the seriousness of the act, given the legal status of the Eurasian lynx, whose population remains fragile in French territory.
Source: France Info